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The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced on 10 June a new set of COVID-19 oriented workplace safety rules, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The new rules were formulated at the behest of President Joe Biden and took 3 months to develop, even though Biden had directed OSHA to implement a COVID-specific emergency standard by 15 March; they are supposedly based on the very latest scientific evidence about the virus.
The rules will apply only to workers in healthcare settings, including hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities. There are some 10 million of such workers, representing about 7 percent of the total U.S. workforce. OSHA is a division of the Labor Dept., and Labor Secretary Matt Walsh says that the rules are necessary because such workers “are most at risk at this point in the pandemic.”
The rules direct employers to develop written plans for dealing with COVID-19, issue personal protection equipment and enforce social distancing. Workers must be given time off with pay in order to get their vaccinations and to recover from any side effects. Workers who contract the virus must work remotely or apart from other workers, or receive time off while recovering, while being paid up to $1400 per week.
Mask-wearing may be required based on the specific job and level of exposure. We reported on a long-time OSHA employee speaking candidly about masks in our October 2020 article, “MASKS ARE A POLITICAL AGENDA.”
The WSJ article reports that advocates for workers in industries other than healthcare feel that their workers deserve similar regulations for their protection. And the Biden administration is formulating protections for unvaccinated workers in industries that involve personal contact, such as meat processing, grocery and retail workers.
TREND FORECAST: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, however, feels that the new standards are at odds with the progress being made towards the country’s return to normalcy. Indeed, as we have detailed since the COVID War was launched in 2020, from social distancing, mask wearing, sanitizing surfaces, capacity regulations, Plexiglas dividers, “stay home, stay safe” orders, etc., so called health officials and politicians made these rules up without a scintilla of scientific evidence to support them.
And now, as with OSHA, agencies in the United States and around the world will continue to impose regulations and mandates as the power trip over the people continues.